Willits: Residents object to East Hill Road closures

A number of area residents shared their objections to the way the City of Willits authorized DeSilva Gates and Flatiron construction to close East Hill Road.The two companies currently have an encroachment permit authorizing them to close East Hill Road between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. weekdays until October 15, 2013 and again for April, May and June of 2014 for construction operations. East Hill Road area residents sat through two hours of Willits city council proceedings on August 14 for an opportunity to share their objections to the way the city of Willits handled the closure in the public comment period. Mike Foley, of East Hill Road, expressed outrage the city failed to request any input from the traveling public before issuing the permit. He stated as a minimum the city should have required a traffic analysis by the contractor. Foley blamed the gridlock in city streets in the days following the closure on the poor planning associated with the carte blanche closure. He also could not understand why the city failed to challenge the contractor to incorporate the needs of the travelling public in its plans. He said the city “did an admirable job assisting CalTrans and the contractor” not so much the residents on the east side of the valley. Pat Collins of the Pine Mountain Fire Safe Council observed that CalTrans required the contractor to allow traffic to pass on Highway 101 during a similar operation. She noted the contractor lined up its scrapers beside Highway 101 and when traffic was stopped they raced across the highway to the other side. She said this was the same type of equipment used on East Hill Road she had watched earlier. On East Hill Road, she said, the contractor employed the same process whenever CalTrans or contractor traffic needed to use the roadway. Collins wondered why the contractor couldn't do the same thing for regular travelers. Cynthia Jeavons expressed outrage the lost time and inconvenience of those living on the east side of Little Lake Valley was not taken into account when the decision was made to close the roadway. She estimated the delays have already cost the east side residents thousands of hours of lost time to allow the contractor to save money. Since the item was not on the agenda the city council made no comment. Willits City Manager Adrienne Moore reported the contractor now thinks it will only need to close East Hill Road for about two to three more weeks. The phone number to check for closures is 456-1901.